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NYC’s 5 Best Spring Fitness Trends

Get pumped, in every sense of the word, for spring with a new fitness routine or by visiting a new exercise studio. New York offers an workout for just about every body type, personality, or attitude. Take a look at five fun ones for spring. By Jessica Allen.

High-Intensity Interval Training

Who doesn’t want to get fitter faster? High-intensity interval training (HIIT) involves doing multiple (punishing) reps of a particular exercise in a concentrated amount of time. This spring, Exhale Spa, best known for its uber-popular yoga and barre classes, as well as its spa treatments, is expanding into the HIIT world by opening a studio that’s focused on the center’s proprietary Core Fusion concept, which uses bands, weights, balls, and your own body to sculpt, tone, and chisel.

modelFIT

Located in photographer Terry Richardson’s former studio, recently opened modelFIT is a light-filled space, all the better to focus your attention on getting a model-like body. Owner Justin Gelband has been called “the model whisperer” for his ability to get models to, well, look even more like models through combinations of various types of exercises, nutrition, and an overall emphasis on wellbeing. Fitness classes include sculpting, boxing, individualized circuit training, and isometric training.

Piloxing

Piloxing combines elements of pilates, boxing, and dance. You’ll jab, crunch, leg-lift, shimmy, dip, dodge, and possibly even plié, all while wearing weighted gloves. You’ll become long, lean, and powerful. It’s intense. This trend began a few years ago in Los Angeles when long-time Pilates devotee and instructor Viveca Jensen began to box to increase strength. In New York, you can pilox to your heart’s content at New York Health & Racquet Club, with several locations around town.

Rebounding

Get in touch with your inner child by bouncing your way to better health. The technical term for this exercise is “rebounding,” but we like “trampolining,” as that more thoroughly explains what you’re actually doing. At JumpLife, in Tribeca, you’ll jump away winter fat beneath a rotating disco ball, to the sweet sounds of electronica while neon lights pulse and shine, on an individual trampoline. If you’re looking for something a little less nightclub-esque, JumpGym emphasizes toning by incorporating weights.

Underwater Spinning

For many years, spinning has been the typical New Yorker’s exercise of choice. AQUA Studio in Tribeca re-ignited the trend by offering underwater spinning, exactly what it sounds like. Among the reasons it gives for riding your bike while partially submerged in a pool are “it burns up to 800 calories” and “Europeans love it.” This spring, push yourself even further by participating in the studio’s Give Yourself a Break Detox Program, which combines a purifying juice and smoothie cleanse with rigorous, moist exercise.